This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
09/09/2020 08:48 AMThe Clinton Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) will continue to discuss possible changes to the regulations that govern contractor storage yards at its next regular meeting. A regulations subcommittee decided the best course of action for the controversial subject is to talk about possible changes as a full committee.
The next regular PZC meeting is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 14. The possibility of submitting new changes to the regulations was a topic at the PZC regulation’s subcommittee meeting held on Aug. 27.
When the regulations were discussed on Aug. 27, PZC member Adam Moore dismissed the allegation made earlier this summer that the proposed amendments were overturned due to anything other than the failure of a former member to recuse himself. Member Martin Jaffe expressed a preference for having regulations that required stringent boundary requirements to protect properties that border residential districts, while also being flexible enough to be fair to the contractors.
Ultimately, the subcommittee failed to reach a consensus on how to proceed with any changes to the regulations, and decided it was best to discuss the proposal with the PZC as a whole.
Earlier this summer, a PZC-initiated application to the contractor storage yard regulations that would relax some of the requirements on setbacks and fencing for contractors’ businesses and storage yards as well as allow for expanded hours of operation was withdrawn at a public hearing after it was pointed out the hearing was improperly noticed. The noticed hearing listed the wrong section for the amendments being discussed, and thus could have led to amendments being overturned if challenged in court.
The potential changes to the regulations are controversial because they already have in fact been overturned in court already. The same proposed regulations were passed in 2016 by a party line vote with five Republicans voting in favor and four Democrats voting against the proposals.
However, during a contentious public hearing held in August 2016, then-PZC alternate Carl Neri, who owned a construction company, recused himself from the discussion on the PZC’s proposed amendment but remained seated at the table with the PZC. Neri then participated in the discussion of the proposal. A very similar proposal had also been brought before the PZC in 2016 by Neri’s daughter, Kim Neri Simoncini, who also owned a construction company.
During the hearing, Neri and Simoncini both interrupted and shouted at members of the public who spoke against the proposal and Neri’s failure to properly recuse himself. Due to Neri’s failure to recuse himself, the Clinton Taxpayers Association (CTA) sued the PZC in 2016. In spring 2019, a judge in Middleton Superior Court ended three years of litigation when he ruled in favor of the CTA due to Neri’s failure to recuse and his actions at the hearing. The judge’s ruling negated the amendments passed by the PZC in 2016.
In July 2020, the PZC regulations committee opted to resubmit the proposed changes from 2016. The reasoning was that the judge overturned the amendments based on the recusal issue, not the actual language of the amendment.
At a public hearing on Aug. 3, three members of the public spoke, all against the proposed regulations. CTA President Pam Fritz argued that in her view the judge’s ruling did infer the text of the amendment beyond the recusal issue. Fritz also warned the PZC that if it further pursued the proposed regulation amendments, the CTA could again sue the PZC.